Pages

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Dirty Furnace Filters Can Be Deadly

What do you assume is the result if you neglect to keep your furnace filter clean? Do you think that your furnace will be able to run forever without problems using the same dirty filter year after year? What do you think will happen when your filter becomes over saturated by dirt, pet hair, allergens and dust? You are looking at more than the fan simply refusing to run properly. A dirty filter in your furnace can be deadly, make you sick or worse, causing your home to go up in flames.

When either your furnace or air conditioning unit are not being maintained properly every six months or every year, dirt, dust and other debris can build up inside causing serious problems in the long run. Not only will you be paying more for heating if your heating unit has to struggle harder to heat the same amount of space but also run the risk of some pretty serious dangers are also involved with not properly responding to a dirty furnace filter. When your furnace and the motor in your air conditioner become clogged by dirt and debris, that air is what will be circulating through your home, rather than the clean, fresh air that you once enjoyed. Your family will be breathing in all these toxins that otherwise would have been sucked out of the air by a clean or new filter. If you continue to breathe this bad air, there is the possibility you will become sick. So if your family is sick and the cause cannot be found, it might be time to replace your filters and to restore the clear air in your home.

After a few years worth of neglecting your furnace serious things can possibly happen. Your furnace may simply break down and you will be lucky if you could find a cheap replacement part. If your heat exchanger becomes warped or cracked from the unbearable heat build up within your furnace, noxious carbon monoxide fumes may leak into your home, not only making you sick but also potentially killing you and your entire family. Can you imagine all of this, simply because you could not be bothered to maintain your furnace filter?

Faulty furnaces have also been known to cause fires, all because the filter wasn't clean, and air couldn't circulate properly through the furnace and throughout your home. Clean up after a fire is incredibly expensive, and there is no telling what damage you may in the process. What if your entire house goes up in flames? What is a pet, or a family member is trapped inside when it happens? Hopefully now changing out your furnace filters or buying filters that are permanent and only need to be cleaned seems like less of a trivial matter. You can save yourself a lot of stress, a lot of health problems and a whole lot of financial burden simply by keeping your filters clean, or replacing them often. If there is any doubt, you can always contact a contractor who can check your furnace and clean your filters if need be.

With so many reasons to keep up on your furnace maintenance, and no known reasons for why not to, you should take the next few moments to check out the state of your furnace filter to make sure that air is circulating properly through your home, that your heat exchanger is still in one healthy, solid piece, and that there is no risk or danger present that you could easily have avoided.

19 comments:

I have a web site that may be of interest to you. The site, (www.YourMonthlyToDoList.com) provides customers with a personalized monthly to do list for the items they own, including heating and cooling units. Subscribers receive a questionnaire with over 400 items. They check the items that apply and we send them their to do list for only those items each month. Individual activities’ frequencies range anywhere from monthly to once every 25 years. Besides the things you might expect like your home, yard, and auto, I’ve included health, finances, and more. My blog (www.blog.YourMonthlyToDoList.com) offers a single to do each day to keep you from getting too far behind. If you have a chance to look at it I’d appreciate any comments you might have. And if you’d like to put a link on your site, I’d greatly appreciate it.

90%+ AFUE furnaces have a 2 heat exchanger design to avoid wasting heat, in the past the product was problematic when it was first developed in the 90's, but has since been improved to near perfection today by most manufacturers to be a very reliable product and if sized properly and installed properly will save an incredible amount of money on the utility bill that you can capitalize on year in and year out.

As its name suggests, an electronic air filter requires electricity to run but is therefore able to attract a greater percentage of dust and grime in the air. It's estimated that electronic air filters trap about twice as much debris as a disposable air filter. This makes them a great choice for allergy sufferers as they trap even the smallest dust particles, animal fur, and more. .http://www.airsponge.com

with regards to "clean or replace dirty air filters monthly," do not use ducts that are too small for it may raise the risk of freezing. Nothing beats the refreshing coolness of an air conditioner, and we gotta thank Mr. Carrier for that.

Choosing from the wide array of furnace filters in the market can be both confusing and physically taxing. Thus, if you have decided to buy a furnace filter or if you're seeking for a replacement for your old filter, it is important that you do some research prior to your purchase.